RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXI, Issue 3240, 26 July 1906, Page 2

RUSSIAN AFFAIRS.

St. Petersburg, July 24, Thk Domna's manifesto continues : “ Should the Government succeed in suppressing the popular movement, it will not convoke another Domna,”

The manifesto appeals to the citizens to stand up for their trampledon right of popular representation in an Imperial Domna, and adds : “Russia must not remain a day without popular representation. You possess the means of acquiring it. The Government without the assent of the popular representatives has no right to collect taxes or to summon the people to a military service. Now that the Government has dissolved the Dooms, the people are justified in giving neither money nor soldiers. All loans raised without the consent of the popular representatives will be invalid, and the nation will never acknowledge its liability ; therefore, until popular representatives are summoned do not give a kopeck to the throne or a soldier to the army. Be steadfast in refusal; no power can resist the united inflexible will of the people.”

Under the pretext of avenging the death of a drunken Cossack killed in Odessa while attacking Jews, a number of Cossacks began sacking the shops of the Jews in the city yesterday, and there is every indication of a massacre, since the authorities are indifferent.

General Kaulbars, who is in command of the troops at Odessa, has informed the Jews that if another Cossack suffers at their hinds the streets shall run knee-deep in Jewish blood. He accuses the Jews of inciting all the acts of the Terrorists.

The conference of members of the Douma at the Finnish seaport of Viborg has only just concluded, and the deputies have separated. Precisely what steps will be taken as a result of this conference and otherwise cannot yet be decided, but it is expected in well-informed circles that a widespread endeavonr will be made to turn the army against the Government, At present if the plans of the oligarchy do not miscarry, General Trepoff bolds the key of the situation. It is the expectation, and certainly the intention, of the progressives that they shall so miscarry that Trepoff shall presently find his army, if not in open revolt, at least prepared to passively resist the order for a sanguinary struggle with their kith and kin

Meanwhile the capital shows the reflex of the crisis, and, with Government stocks at speculative prices (Russian 4 per cents are selling in St. Petersburg at 67£) and a hundred other instances of distrust in the stability of the present order of things, it is felt that there is little room for cheerfulness in the palace at Peterbof.

The system of domiciliary visits is now in active progress, and the Government, timid through the consciousness of the prodigious step in the dark, is forestalling every suspicion of activity on the part of the supporters of the. Douma. Espionage is rampant, even for St. Petersburg, and the secret police are working to remove the leaders of revolution to save later employment for the thousands of troops poured into the capital daring the past few days.

The houses of members of the Douma in St. Petersburg have received especial attention from the police, and a thorough search has been made of them with a view to finding anything of an incriminating nature.

The session of the Russian Council of the Empire (the Upper House of the Russian “ Constitution ”) has been suspended nntil March next.

In London the Russian loan declined yesterday to discount, and closed at 10£ d discount. A sharp fall of Russian securities has also taken place in Paris,

Martial law has been proclaimed in the province of the Don Cossacks, the* valley of the lower Don, in Southern Russia.

Bombs were thrown yesterday at Singer’s sewing machine works at Sosnonice and Bendiu in Poland. Many persons were injured in each of the two places. Telegrams from Sb. Petersburg, understood to be officially inspired, assert that all is quiet in the capital and in Moscow.

As we feared, the authorities are organising Jewish massacres in one centre at least, with a view to creating a diversion from the main political issue.

A general exodus of Jews is proceeding from Odessa, where serious disturbances have occurred, and there is good reason to fear that earlier reports were not exaggerated. London, July 24.

The members of the Douma attending the International Parliamentary Conference numbered six. As they entered the Royal Gallery they received an impressive welcome, the whole of the Conference rising and cheering with great enthusiasm.

In welcoming the members of the Douma Cowards the close of bis general address, Sir H. CampbellBannerman declined to comment on the dissolution, except to say that new institutions often had a stormy youth, and that the Douma would revive in one form or another. “ We can say with all sincerity ; * The Douma is dead—long live the Douma !’ ” said the British Prime Minister in an adaptation of “ Le Roi est Mort,’.’ and the mot was greeted by the Conference with thunders of applause.

After some other matters had been dealt with Professor Kovalevsky rose as the spokesman of the delegates from the Douma, and was received with significant heartiness. He regretted that their mission—that of bis colleagues and himself —had been brought so abruptly to an end. They intended to return to Russia with the unshakeable re» solve to continue the great fight for freedom and their place among the nations of the world.

London, July 24. Reuter’s St. Petersburg correspondent says that the Grand Duke Nicholas warned the Tsar that there was an alarming growth of revolutionary propaganda in the army, and this fact induced the Tsar to precipitate the dissolution of the Douma,

CABLEGRAMS

[united press association] (by electric telegraph — copyright

Berlin, July 25. The dissolution of the Russian Parliament was received with surprise in Berlin, but few of the newspapers have expressed unreserved condemnation of the act, St Petersburg, July . 2 <r The first military outbreak resulting from the present situation occurred at Breßtlitovatb. The siege artillery and two companies of the fortress artillery mutinied. The Validikavkas regiment, with machine guns, surrounded them and arrested all tbs fortress artillery, two hundred and forty of the siege artillery, and also a number of engineers. The mutineers wounded General Svanoff and another officer and destroyed the Officers’ Olub. Sixty-five members of two of the most important Socialist revolutionary committees in Moscow have been arrested, including the principal strike organisers.